Friday, April 27, 2012

If I had to pick a place to be 7 days a week, this would be it. My little slice of heaven; a place that I can build whatever I want, whenever I want...Magical!

She may not be a shining example of organizational mastery, but everything is within reach and is never too far away if lost... 10' x 16' of shaping bay, laminating room, sanding room, and showroom, all rolled into one. It may not be delux but I'll be damned if I don't always have a handful of boards in the works that keep me rather excited to be there.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

It's taken me a whole lot of time to put this project together and it means the world to me; if you can do it, please take the time to help support what I think are two things that are definitely worth your time.

If you've got the ability and the heart, please consider making a donation and spread the message. This is a 30 day project so I'm going to be doing anything and everything I can in those 30 days to spread the word. All it takes is 720 people do put in $25 each, not such an unattainable goal! ..Especially when I know that 500-ish people look at this blog alone every morning (yeeeeeeeah I'm lookin' at you!). So even if you just pass on the word and a link to the project to some friends it'll mean a world of good for what I do AND the mission of the Save Naples Coalition...what could be better!?!?!?!?

Here is the link to the project page, there are some epic rewards for doantions...you may find your name burned into the walls of my shop forever and ever, or you can even get the same thing I gave my parents for Christmas...heavy!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Tomorrow I'm launching a Kickstarter fundraiser and wanted to give a heads-up on what its about, its been in the works for about 6 months and it would mean the world to me and could make a very very real change in my business and the viability of what I do for the long-run, while at the same time donating a chunk of money to a great organization!

My project is all about environmental and community responsibility. I want to build a line of environmentally friendly-er surfcraft to offer at an upcoming art show and auction, then pay it forward by donating the profit from the show to a great local organization. The boards will bring attention to environmentally conscious surfboard building materials while allowing me to expand my horizons as a small business and at the same time donate a lump of cash to a worthy cause...I can't think of anything better!

The funding of the campaign will allow me to use plant-sap based resins and recycled foam products to build a collection of beautiful surfboards. Once my work is finished I'm going to hold an art show/silent auction and donate the profit from the line's sales to the Save Naples Coalition, who is a small group of people helping to protect one of the last areas of privately owned coastline on the Gaviota coast from major development.

Larger scale change is always spurred on by grass roots efforts that raise consumers' expectations. I want to be part of the challenge and help change the demands that customers put on our industry.

As surfers, we rely completely on our environment for our pleasure, and we tax it heavily in the process. The act of building a surfboard has been known for a long time to be very toxic, yet the industry has turned a blind eye towards the effect that it has on our surroundings as well as the effect it has on the people who build them. The chemicals contained in polyester resins and polyurethane foams are extremely high in VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) and are widely known to cause cancer and serious health problems. Not only does using better materials turn a surfboard more environmentally sound, it creates a healthier environment for the builder.

The resins that I want to use, in place of VOC-rich polyester, are a plant-sap based resin which is extremely strong and readily available. Not only do they put less strain on the environment in production, they have the potential to outlast traditional products, making the demand for new surfboards far less.

The technologies required to make a better surfboard are no longer experimental, they're high quality and available for those willing the invest the time and money necessary. The materials are new and cost more than traditional ones but create a valuable and conscious product.

I'm humbled and honored to be able to do what I do for a living with or without this campaign and I'm excited beyond belief for the possibilities. I'd like to do my part to make it healthier for all of us and our ocean as I find my way through it!

This blog has for years been a place where I share and discuss my passion for my work around surfboards. I rarely ask for anything but if you do one thing, this would be my humble request; please help support this project when it launches, it means the world to me!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Oh man, where to start!?
I've been back in the shop full time this week, working out some new ideas that impregnated my brain while in Australia. I've shaped 5 boards in the past few days that I'm really pleased with, including a plug for a new spoon mold thats a bit smaller than the old one and more refined; suffice to say I'll be poppin' out some sweet little flex spoons when the mold is done...frothing!

In the meantime, here is Nico's spoon that I built with him in Byron Bay. I stayed at Nico's for 2 weeks so we made the best of our time and used his back yard to do the majority of the work on the board while we weren't surfing.

I didn't forsee building a spoon so I didn't bring the template with me; I put this one together using the Greenough/Wildnerness stubby template I've been shaping the SB Stub from. With hardly any tweaks it laid out into a perfect spoon template; from 6'7 down to 5', the curves matched up really cleanly...It showed me very clearly how direct Greenough's influence was being used in surfboard evolution at the time. Pretty flippin' cool!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Monday, April 16, 2012

I want to send out a huuuuuuge thank you to everyone who helped my cobble my trip together as it progressed; I'm always very fortunate to spend my time with amazing people when I travel and I couldn't possibly scoot around so well cared for without some seriously amazing people, so thank you all, you know exactly who you are!

Welcome back to Santa Barbara...This is why we pay through the nose to live here and why no matter how awesome places that I go to are, why Santa Barbara is still home.

We were blessed with a beautiful little afternoon of swell and sunshine, I watched Connor and Brandon trim the day away from the cliff with a tweaked paw...

Saturday, April 14, 2012

My 5'6 kneelo from 2006/2007...She's alive and still going strong, but in need of a new variation soon, I think :)

This board taught me a lot about flex and the advantage of kneeboard-level positioning on certain wave types. I built this board in preparation for my first Flex Spoon, which happened about two years later:

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Ari is 19 and blew me away when I saw him surfing the Rabbit's Foot; with less than 8 sessions on it he was absolutely destroying on it.

Always in the pocket and in tune with the wave's speed and the board's ability to utilize it. Ari is now the owner of that variation of the Foot and I'm sure some interesting things will take place between them at home in Byron Bay; I'm pretty stoked I decided to shape and glass that one the day before I left for Oz!

INSTAGRAM'd! <--- Click it to see my Instagram feed which if you ask me, is pretty okay.

Electronic Mail/About/WTF's?!?!:

...eeeemail me if you'd like:

lovelacesurfcraft@gmail.com

my name is Ryan Lovelace and this'd be my blog, created and maintained for the purpose of sharing my work in and around surfboards. My main website is above, but herein lies about 5 ears of blog postings, dating to the wayback ages.